Return to the Lord

12 "Yet even now," declares the Lord,i "return to me with all your heart,j with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;13and k rend your hearts and not l your garments."Return to the Lord your God,m for he is gracious and merciful,slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;n and he relents over disaster.14o Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,and p leave a blessing behind him,q a grain offering and a drink offeringfor the Lord your God?

15r Blow the trumpet in Zion;s consecrate a fast;call a solemn assembly;16gather the people.t Consecrate the congregation;assemble the elders;u gather the children,even nursing infants.v Let the bridegroom leave his room,and the bride her chamber.

17w Between the x vestibule and the y altarz let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weepand say, "Spare your people, O Lord,and make not your heritage a reproach,a byword among the nations. 1a Why should they say among the peoples,'Where is their God?'"

Cross ReferencesDeuteronomy 4:30
When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.
1 Samuel 7:3
And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, "If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Jeremiah 4:1
If you return, O Israel, declares the Lord, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver.
Hosea 12:6
"So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God."

Cross References1 Samuel 7:6
So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, "We have sinned against the Lord." And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.

Cross ReferencesPsalms 34:18
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Cross ReferencesGenesis 37:29
When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes

Cross ReferencesExodus 34:6
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Psalms 86:5
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
Psalms 86:15
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Jonah 4:2
And he prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Cross ReferencesNumbers 23:19
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Ezekiel 24:14
I am the Lord. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord God.

Cross ReferencesJonah 3:9
Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.

Cross ReferencesHaggai 2:19
Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.
Malachi 3:10
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Cross ReferencesJoel 1:9
The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.
Joel 1:13
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

Cross ReferencesJoel 2:1
Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near.

Cross ReferencesJoel 1:14
Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

Cross ReferencesJoshua 3:5
Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Cross References2 Chronicles 20:13
Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

Cross ReferencesDeuteronomy 24:5
When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
Ecclesiastes 3:5
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.
Zechariah 12:12 - 14
The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves.
1 Corinthians 7:5
Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Cross ReferencesEzekiel 8:16
And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east.

Cross References1 Kings 6:3
The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house.
2 Chronicles 3:4
The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and its height was 120 cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold.

Cross References2 Chronicles 4:1
He made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.

Cross ReferencesJoel 1:9
The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.

Cross ReferencesPsalms 42:3
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?
Psalms 79:10
Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes!
Psalms 115:2
Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?

Notes

Joel 2:12 - 17

Yet even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.
And rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
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